Here are some links of things I've fallen in love with this week:

1. NASA is giving away awesome retro-style space travel posters created by their Jet Propulsion Labs! I only wish I had enough wall space for them all.

2. Olivia Burton is a beautiful watch brand designed by two best friends who met at fashion college in London. I'm really feeling this one with a bee motif.

3. I'm in love with embroidery lately.  I desperately joined Sarah K. Benning's notification list after coming across her beautiful work featuring succulents.

4. Juniper the fox is officially my favorite Instagram profile at the moment. The video of her jumping on the bed makes me squeal with joy!

Soon after my discussion with Hilary Parker and Jenny Bryan about spreadsheets on Not So Standard Deviations, Brooke Anderson forwarded me this article written by Steven Levy about the original granddaddy of spreadsheets, VisiCalc. Actually, the real article was written back in 1984 as so-called microcomputers were just getting their start. VisiCalc was originally written for the Apple II computer and notable competitors at the time included Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Multiplan, all since defunct.

It’s interesting to see Levy’s perspective on spreadsheets back then and to compare it to the current thinking about data, data science, and reproducibility in science. The problem back then was “ledger sheets” (what we might now call a spreadsheet), which contained numbers and calculations related to businesses, were tedious to make and keep up to date.

Making spreadsheets, however necessary, was a dull chore best left to accountants, junior analysts, or secretaries. As for sophisticated “modeling” tasks – which, among other things, enable executives to project costs for their companies – these tasks could be done only on big mainframe computers by the data-processing people who worked for the companies Harvard MBAs managed.

You can see one issue here: Spreadsheets/Ledgers were a “dull chore”, and best left to junior people. However, the “real” computation was done by the people the “data processing” center on big mainframes. So what exactly does that leave for the business executive to do?

Note that the way of doing things back then was effectively reproducible, because the presentation (ledger sheets printed on paper) and the computation (data processing on mainframes) was separated.

The impact of the microcomputer-based spreadsheet program appears profound.

Already, the spreadsheet has redefined the nature of some jobs; to be an accountant in the age of spreadsheet program is — well, almost sexy. And the spreadsheet has begun to be a forceful agent of decentralization, breaking down hierarchies in large companies and diminishing the power of data processing.

There has been much talk in recent years about an “entrepreneurial renaissance” and a new breed of risk-taker who creates businesses where none previously existed. Entrepreneurs and their venture-capitalist backers are emerging as new culture heroes, settlers of another American frontier. Less well known is that most of these new entrepreneurs depend on their economic spreadsheets as much as movie cowboys depend on their horses.

 If you replace "accountant" with "statistician" and "spreadsheet" with "big data" and you are magically teleported into 2016.

The way I see it, in the early 80's, spreadsheets satisfied the never-ending desire that people have to interact with data. Now, with things like tablets and touch-screen phones, you can literally "touch" your data. But it took microcomputers to get to a certain point before interactive data analysis could really be done in a way that we recognize today. Spreadsheets tightened the loop between question and answer by cutting out the Data Processing department and replacing it with an Apple II (or an IBM PC, if you must) right on your desk.

Of course, the combining of presentation with computation comes at a cost of reproducibility and perhaps quality control. Seeing the description of how spreadsheets were originally used, it seems totally natural to me. It is not unlike today's analytic dashboards that give you a window into your business and allow you to "model" various scenarios by tweaking a few numbers of formulas. Over time, people took spreadsheets to all sorts of extremes, using them for purposes for which they were not originally designed, and problems naturally arose.

So now, we are trying to separate out the computation and presentation bits a little. Tools like knitr and R and shiny allow us to do this and to bring them together with a proper toolchain. The loss in interactivity is only slight because of the power of the toolchain and the speed of computers nowadays. Essentially, we've brought back the Data Processing department, but have staffed it with robots and high speed multi-core computers.

See The Guardian obit here.   Umberto  Eco has passed away.  I was lucky enough to hear this captivating analyst of culture and mean speak at University of Toronto’s International Summer School on Semiotic and Structural Studies that Paul Bouissac organized for many years (a version continues in Imatra).  It was 1983 or 84; the topic was the symbolic power of American film, specifically I belief he spoke on Bogart in Casablanca. He was passionate about language and meaning. The punch line of the talk was, repeated several times in Eco’s heavy Italian accent,

“Bogie — ‘ees my heero!”

Rob Shields (University of Alberta)

ps. see the ongoing and renjuvenated Ryerson/Victoria College Toronto Semiotic Circle.  An apt memorial.

Earlier this week a friend asked if I knew any 5-10 person start-ups that were doing interesting work in the productivity space. I knew a couple, but the always-full-of-opinion Twitter seemed like a good place to learn more, so I asked.

The following is a selection of the surprisingly large number of start-ups that responded. I spent max five minutes looking at each and grabbing initial thoughts. If they were in stealth mode and provided no pitch, I made up my own.

In one year, I’m going to return to this list and see who made it.

Here you go…

Airtable

My first job in technology was building databases, so Airtable resonates. It looks like it’s lightweight databases for regular humans. This is a noble cause, but I worry when a new service tries to be everything to everyone rather than focusing on a single clear use case.

Would I try it? Probably not. I use specialized services like Asana, but I suspect this would be a solid small business tool.

AskWonder

AskWonder appears to be a service where you can ask questions of qualified researchers – a personal research assistant. I signed up, but you’re asked to pick your industry and there is no “engineering” industry, so I picked writing. A simple interface allowed me to ask a question, so I did, “Who are the five most profitable publishers of technology-related books?”

I was then asked to supply a credit card for the $29.99 fee to answer this question. So I stopped, closed the window, and stepped away from the computer.

Would I try it? Nope. I’d use Google.

ClubHouse

ClubHouse is project management software that appears to be based on Agile. My impression is this is a crowded market where it is hard to differentiate. Also, I find it curious that in the past three companies I’ve worked at that we haven’t widely deployed these types of tools. There is certainly a market for this software, but it seems to be a personal choice for a team or two rather than an enterprise choice.

Would I try it? Not until I was at a start-up.

Coach.me

I’m already on Coach.me. It’s a combination of a tool to help you change/maintain habits as well as a tool to help you find a personal coach. As a serial evaluator of productivity software, I could definitely us the former. In terms of coaching, I’ve of the opinion coaching is a dish best served face-to-face.

Would I try it? Maybe, but not for coaching.

Meekan

Meerkan is a service I’ve always wanted, but one that is usually hindered by edge cases. It appears that Meekan is designed to work inside of Slack or Hipchat as a means of doing scheduling and other business activities. Bots inside of Slack/Hipchat. Yes. Good idea. Scheduling? I am biased by the fact that my schedule is crazy, but even with a less crazy schedule, the amount of human intervention necessary in scheduling a meeting with four humans is surprisingly high. I’ll explain.

Please schedule a 30 minute meeting with Ryan, Angela, and Tony on Wednesday. This is not a complex action. The bot needs to look at four calendars and find a common 30 minute slot on the next Wednesday.

But what if there isn’t a slot? Well, I’d guess the bot would helpfully find the next available slot. Hey Rands, there is no open slot on that Wednesday that all the participants can meet. What about 1:30p the following day?

Thing is… the meeting must happen. If it doesn’t happen, we likely lose $100k. Can I require a meeting to happen? Yes? Ok, how does a bot know which meetings are high versus low priority? And, by the way, we haven’t even talked about conference room availability.

No doubt that there is a large market for bots inside of Slack-like social spaces, but bots have yet to prove to me they can do more than very simple tasks.

Would I try it? Maybe.

Numerous

This is an app to help you keep track of all your numbers. They’ve created all sorts of interfaces to things that produce numbers and allow you to aggregate said numbers in one place.

This app stresses me out. I’m already at war with notifications on my phone and the idea that I’d build hooks into other services I’d use to give me more notifications appeals to the number counter in me, but no. So very no.

Would I try it? No.

Update: Shutting down on May 1, 2016.

Pingpad

The fact a good portion of the world still uses Lotus Notes (now: IBM Notes) tell us two things:

1. The world needs collaboration software;
2. Once collaboration software is truly adopted at scale, it’s nearly impossible to dethrone.

You might’ve giggled when I mentioned Lotus Notes, but take a look at your work life. Are you on Exchange? How about Gmail? It’s the same thing. A crap interface that you’re locked into because everyone else in the company is already there.

Meanwhile, apps like Pingpad offers real time collaboration on notes, lists, photos, and message, too. Their sizes allows them to actually evolve and innovate, but the more I stare at Pingpad, the more I wondering… isn’t this just Slack?

Would I try it? Maybe.

Small Wins

In stealth mode, so I get to dream on this one. I hope these folks are building a tool which allows teams of humans to broadcast and share wins across the team in an attempt both recognize excellence, but also to slowly replace the antiquated system of yearly or bi-yearly performance reviews.

Would I try it? Can’t tell.

Sortd

Kind’a excited about Sortd because I’m currently in a “use my inbox as a to-do list” phase. Gmail is designed by engineers so it has a bajillion knobs and dials to allow to me to adjust it… just so. This has resulted in a solid three weeks of close-to-inbox-zero, but the true test of any productivity is not the first three weeks of bliss, it’s what happens when something explodes. Reorg, unexpected travel, surprise resignation. The true power of your productivity is determined by it’s resiliency to the unexpected.

Sortd is Trello for Gmail. It allows you push mail to different lists like “To Do”, “Follow up”, or whatever list floats your particular productivity boat. Sortd merges your inbox with your to do lists and it appears to do it without imposing a lot of cognitive load.

Would I try it? Yes.

Superhuman

Kind’a excited about Superhuman too, but they’re all stealthy, so here’s their blurb:

Superhuman is not just another email client. We are rebuilding the inbox from the ground up to make you brilliant at what you do. We are specifically designing it for professionals and power users. Especially those with very demanding inboxes.

Superhuman is gorgeous. Blazingly fast. And comes with advanced tools and features that make you feel superhuman.

I’ve been waiting for a new view into my inbox for many years. Been mostly let down. Willing to be let down again.

Would I try it? Yes. Because email.

Canvas

(Disclosure: I’m an investor in Canvas.) Canvas is also stealthy, so here’s their blurb:

Writing is the best way we’ve found to communicate, especially at work. But all the existing tools we’ve used are stuck in the past. We deserve a product worthy of our everyday notes as well as our greatest thoughts. A hackable, opinionated product that’s made for us, developers and designers.

Would I try it? Yes. Because writing.

The ODROID-U2 is an ARM development board with a quad-core Exynos CPU and 2GB of RAM that I’ve been using since early 2013 to do software development of various kinds. Despite its powerful GPU, I run it headless and access it (much more conveniently, it must be said) via VNC.

I run an ultra-minimalist, extra-light desktop environment on it using openbox, fbpanel, pcmanfm and lxterminal— it’s the exact same environment that I use inside my Vagrant boxes, and it has served me well over the years.

The machine is fast enough to run NetBeans, Chromium and my usual toolset, and I take advantage of a little-known feature in the vnc4server package to resize the desktop according to what client device I’m using (ranging from 1024x768 from an iPad mini or phone to full-blown 1920x1080 from a desktop PC).

Resizing the display

You need to launch vnc4server with multiple --geometry options, like so:

vncserver -depth 16 --geometry 1024x768 --geometry 1280x720 --geometry 1280x800 --geometry 1600x1200 --geometry 1920x1080 --geometry 2048x1536

…or put those resolutions in your .vnc/config:

-randr 1024x768,1280x720,1280x800,1280x1024,1600x1200,1920x1080,2048x1536

Those resolutions correspond to the various “thin clients” I use to get stuff done on it: my iPad mini, an Android device, a MacBook Pro, a retina iPad (where I use 1600x1200 quite often), and a regular desktop PC. Whenever I switch clients, I use xrandr to switch resolutions to match the physical display (all the VNC clients I use seem to support this these days):

$ xrandr
SZ: Pixels Physical Refresh
0 1024 x 768 ( 260mm x 195mm ) 60
*1 1280 x 800 ( 325mm x 203mm ) 60
2 1600 x 1200 ( 406mm x 305mm ) 60
3 1280 x 720 ( 325mm x 183mm ) 60
4 1920 x 1080 ( 488mm x 274mm ) *60
5 2048 x 1536 ( 520mm x 390mm ) 60
Current rotation - normal
Current reflection - none
Rotations possible - normal
Reflections possible - none
$ xrandr -s 4

I’ve recently reinstalled mine to run Ubuntu 14.04 off an 8GB EMMC with an 8GB Class 10 MicroSD Card for extra storage off /opt:

# cat /etc/fstab
UUID="1E66-94B1" /media/boot vfat defaults 0 0
/dev/mmcblk1p3 none swap 0 0
UUID=074e71d6-ddce-47d5-b3e4-949ef0029619 /opt ext4 defaults 0 0

One of the essential tweaks I do to any Linux system I have to deal with on a regular basis is to install the Infinality font rendering packages, which do away with all the nastiness usually associated with what passes for typography in X11:

Install base packages

apt-get -y update
echo ttf-mscorefonts-installer msttcorefonts/accepted-mscorefonts-eula select true | sudo debconf-set-selections
apt-get -y dist-upgrade
apt-get -y install htop tmux vim rsync python-dev python-setuptools libev-dev
apt-get -y install sqlite3 imagemagick bzip2 ttf-mscorefonts-installer
sudo fc-cache -f -v
sudo easy_install virtualenv

Set up Infinality for better font rendering

if [ ! -d /etc/fonts/infinality ]; then
sudo apt-get install -y build-essential devscripts git-core debhelper
sudo apt-get install -y docbook-to-man libx11-dev x11proto-core-dev quilt
cd ~/Development
git clone https://github.com/rcarmo/debian-infinality.git
cd debian-infinality/freetype-infinality/
./build.sh
cd ../fontconfig-infinality/
./build.sh
cd ..
sudo dpkg -i freetype-infinality/*.deb fontconfig-infinality/*.deb
cd /etc/fonts/infinality
sudo ./infctl.sh setstyle osx
fi

This post is for the search engines, about how I remedied an issue with my Apple Watch, for folks who might have the same issues.

TL;DR version: if watch-enhanced apps are not even showing up in the iPhone “Apple Watch” app, check in that app to make sure that you have the latest watchOS version.

I stopped by the Apple Store in Akron Ohio the other day to have my iPhone's camera replaced because its stabilization had started to go crazy. As they fixed it for free under warranty, I lazily watched the in-store video advertisements and impulsively decided to buy an Apple Watch.

Since its release I've had absolutely no interest in getting an Apple Watch, and I don't even think they look very good (my taste in watches is more simple, classic, as evidenced here). But my mother recently had a stroke that left her paralyzed on the left side — the reason for my extended visit to The States — and thought that maybe an Apple Watch, with its Siri voice commands, might be a useful tool for her in the future. So, I bought one to test with.

After my iPhone was fixed, Apple staff helped me pair it with my newly-purchased Apple Watch and do some basic setup. It was all fast and easy, and I was out the door without any of the angst and dismay of my previous visit.

The Problem: some Apple Watch Apps Just Don't Show Up

The iPhone includes a built-in “Apple Watch” app that contains a list of all of your watch-enhanced phone apps. For example, the Facebook Messenger phone app includes a component for the watch so that you can receive message notifications on the watch. It's within this “Apple Watch” phone app that you configure which apps you actually do want to appear on your watch.

The problem I ran into is that some watch-enhanced apps simply didn't show up in the “Apple Watch” phone app. For example, Facebook's “Messenger” app did not show up.

Searching on the intertubes brought no end of talk about problems with apps not showing up on the watch itself, but nothing about my problem, about apps not even showing up in the phone “Apple Watch” app's list.

I had the latest versions of OSX and iTunes, and no amount of resets and full restores solved anything.

The problem, it turns out after many red herrings, is that the watch's software (watchOS) was old at version 1, and nothing alerted me to the fact that the watch I just bought didn't include the major watchOS version 2 update released four months ago. I'd have thought that somewhere along the line — Apple Staff helping me set it up the watch, iOS, iTunes, the watch itself, etc. — would have let me know that there was an update available.

As it was, with the old software, any phone app that targeted the new watch version would simply be invisible to the watch and the phone's “Apple Watch” app.

Inside the “Apple Watch” app on my phone, I went to “General > Software Update” (which had no notification icon). It did a check and lo and behold there was indeed an update. I launched it, and an hour later the phone displayed... drum-roll please... “watchOS 1.0.1 / Your software is up to date.”

Uh, I was supposed to have been installing watch0S 2.1.

It turns out that even though the phone was done doing the update, the watch itself wasn't quite done. A while later I could confirm that indeed the watch was at watchOS 2.1.

Now, all the watch-enabled apps do appear in the phone's “Apple Watch” app list. Woo-hoo!

Another issue I discovered with my iPhone today, besides the problem of it not alerting to a new watchOS version, is that restoring an iPhone from a backup with iTunes requires a lot of temporary disk space, and if you don't have enough, the restore operation will partially fail, silently leaving the phone with some apps (and their data) missing.

If you notice, as I did today because most of my apps were missing, you can clear out disk space and re-run the restore.

The first time I encountered this kind of problem was a few months ago when restoring Anthony's phone. At the time I didn't know what caused the apps to go missing, and he was crushed to lose almost all his data.

At least now I know how to prevent it in the first place.

I’ve been reading the awesome “Pwning Tomorrow” speculative fiction anthology published by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Fantastic stories written by the likes of Neil Gaiman, Cory Doctorow, Bruce Sterling and many others, exploring the implications of technology policies. They look at biology (hacking genomes etc.), privacy (internet-of-things writ large), communications, surveillance, and many others. Some are subtle. Some, less so. But every story has made me think.

It hit me – we need something like this, to explore issues in educational technology. We have scholarly publications, we have critique and commentary, but we need future-looking explorations of the implications of what this stuff may mean for teaching, learning, and society.

So. I have absolutely no idea how to do this, or what it might look like. But I’d be interesting in compiling an anthology of speculative fiction on educational technology – the tech itself, policies, funding, or any other area that an author wants to explore.

If you’re interested in contributing to an anthology (or know someone who would be able to make a contribution), let me know, and I’ll try to put something together.

Quoc Pham Cycling Shoes are by far the most stylish cycling shoes I have come across. Made of soft leather, these shoes exude style, yet are comfortable to wear all day long, both on and off the bike. Created by master craftsmen, Quoc Pham Cycling Shoes are designed to integrate cycling seamlessly into normal, everyday life.

The post Quoc Pham Cycling Shoes – Review appeared first on Average Joe Cyclist.

Have you ever talked yourself out of doing something that you felt passionate about?

Have you ever bought into others’ advice, even though it was contrary to your own beliefs?

If you answered yes to either question then you are like most of us humans, and you second-guess yourself by buying into your fears.

Now ask yourself – Did anything good ever come out of NOT doing something? Other than stopping yourself from following foolish pursuits that may have put you in harms way, stopping yourself probably never led to a positive outcome. In my experience whenever I stopped myself from following my own instincts, it not only didn’t move me forward – it set me back.

So, why do we let resistance keep us from what we are meant to do? It’s fear of the unknown. And why do we let others’ resistance and fears stop us from taking a leap of faith? Can other people predict the outcome anymore than we can? Just because something didn’t work for someone else doesn’t mean it won’t work for you or me. There just are too many variables that play a part in whether someone succeeds or fails.

I’ll make one prediction – If you stop yourself from pursuing your big idea or even your small idea – it won’t happen.

So why are you letting resistance rule your life? That’s just plain stupid.

Watch this and then ask yourself – what are you waiting for?

We have decided to start running A/B Testing in Firefox for Android. These experiments are intended to optimize specific outcomes, as well as, inform our long-term design decisions. We want to create the best Firefox experience we can, and these experiments will help.

The system will also allow us to throttle the release of features, called staged rollout or feature toggles, so we can monitor new features in a controlled manner across a large user base and a fragmented device ecosystem. If we need to rollback a feature for some reason, we’d have the ability to do that, quickly without needing people to update software.

Technical details:

• Mozilla Switchboard is used to control experiment segmenting and staged rollout.
• UI Telemetry is used to collect metrics about an experiment.
• Unified Telemetry is used to track active experiments so we can correlate to application usage.

What is Mozilla Switchboard?

Mozilla Switchboard is based on Switchboard, an open source SDK for doing A/B testing and staged rollouts from the folks at KeepSafe. It connects to a server component, which maintains a list of active experiments.

The SDK does create a UUID, which is stored on the device. The UUID is sent to the server, which uses it to “bucket” the client, but the UUID is never stored on the server. In fact, the server does not store any data. The server we are using was ported to Node from PHP and is being hosted by Mozilla.

We decided to start using Switchboard because it’s simple, open source, has client code for Android and iOS, saves no data on the server and can be hosted by Mozilla.

Planning Experiments

The Mobile Product and UX teams are the primary drivers for creating experiments, but as is common on the Mobile team, ideas can come from anywhere. We have been working with the Mozilla Growth team, getting a better understanding of how to design the experiments and analyze the metrics. UX researchers also have input into the experiments.

Once Product and UX complete the experiment design, Development would land code in Firefox to implement the desired variations of the experiment. Development would also land code in the Switchboard server to control the configuration of the experiment: On what channels is it active? How are the variations distributed across the user population?

Since we use Telemetry to collect metrics on the experiments, the Beta channel is likely our best time period to run experiments. Telemetry is on by default on Nightly, Aurora and Beta; and Beta is the largest user base of those three channels.

Once we decide which variation of the experiment is the “winner”, we’ll change the Switchboard server configuration for the experiment so that 100% of the user base will flow through the winning variation.

Yes, a small percentage of the Release channel has Telemetry enabled, but it might be too small to be useful for experimentation. Time will tell.

What’s Happening Now?

We are trying to be very transparent about active experiments and staged rollouts. We have a few active experiments right now.

• Onboarding A/B experiment with several variants.
• Easy entry points for accessing History and Bookmarks on the main menu.
• Experimenting with the awesomescreen behavior when displaying search results page.

You can always look at the Mozilla Switchboard configuration to see what’s happening. Over time, we’ll be adding support to Firefox for iOS as well.

Check out the latest video - a 'review' of the new Richmond Adelaide bike lane extensions - by City Cyclist.

City Cyclist elated about new lanes, discouraged by design flaws

Special delivery from guest contributor, City Cyclist

It's great that Toronto is making some forward progress with added bike lanes and bike infrastructure. And anyone who lives in the city and looks around realizes that there are a growing number of cyclists, even in the winter. Again, I will stress that the bike lanes on Richmond and Adelaide are positive steps towards a minimum grid of bike lanes in the city, and our new protected bike lanes saw a 300 per cent increase in cyclists within the first year of the test period, so if you build it, we'll use it BUT...we could be smarter about the design of the bike lanes.

What is wrong about the design of the new bike lanes? I'm glad you asked. First of all, bus stops are in the bike lane, so buses must cross into bike traffic, completely cutting off our safe cycling space in order to stop. Some bus drivers are courteous, giving cyclists time and space during this process. Others don't give a crap and bully you out of the way, effectively pushing cyclists out of the bike lane...and this can be very dangerous. One such bus cut off is in the video. This poor design for bus stops is evident every day when you ride along Richmond. This wouldn't be too hard to fix - the Sherbourne bike lane does a decent job with bus stops - the buses stop beside the bike lane; cyclist have to stop to yield for passengers, but the 40,000 pound buses never encroaches on the safety of the cyclists in the bike lane. Everyone shares. No one gets hurt.

And another thing! Imagine driving in a car and making a right turn from the centre lane, crossing in front of, and fighting through, other cars who are going straight in the right lane. Stupid, right? Welcome to Toronto city cycling. At intersections along the Richmond and Adelaide bike lanes, the last 50 feet or so is a free for all - cars are allowed to merge into the bike lane to turn right. Many are courteous and respectful. Some are complete douches, speeding past cyclists so that they can then cut off these same cyclists at the intersection, where they then block the bike lane because they have to wait for pedestrians who are crossing anyway, leaving the cyclists pissed off and forcing them to dangerously drive around them, or wait for the car to move while inhaling some tasty tailpipe at close range. (Hey, if we liked waiting in traffic all day like idiots, we'd be driving a car alone too.) Anyway, having to stop every block, or ride around cars and buses one way or another, is not an efficient (or particularly safe) system.

Cycling is the most efficient way to get around the downtown core, but this right turn issue is a design flaw. Dear Denmark: Please advise us how we can fix this issue; we're a bit clueless.

What else? Blocked bike lanes. A problem everywhere, I know, but having trucks and cars block the bike lanes, or even driving in them, negates the whole idea of having a space for cyclists to ride safely. Adelaide between York and Yonge is ridiculous: I bet the entire city budget shortfall could be made up by simply ticketing trucks and cars blocking the bike lane here. Is it an enforcement issue? Yes, in part, for sure. Is it a design issue? Maybe. It's also a cultural thing - it's selfish and disrespectful of others and it has a chain reaction effect - if a car or truck is blocking the bike lane, then the cyclist has to ride into traffic or, gasp(!), onto the sidewalk to get around.

And while I’m on a roll… let’s talk about: Snow removal.

Yes, snow removal...during a winter where we have had barely any snow, there are still bike lane snow removal issues, in spite of the added city budget and efforts. The main problem I see is at intersections and private driveways. The city will plow and salt the lanes, and then other trucks or car traffic will make such a mess of intersections that the bike lane is unusable. Or people will shovel snow into the lanes. Right now it's a minor annoyance really, but when Toronto had our one significant  snowfall earlier this winter, the Richmond bike lane was unusable for days in spots unless you dismounted every block and walked over the snow pile.

Check out some of these photos taken at the end of December.

Not pretty.

Elsewhere in the blogisphere:

City plans to plow bike lanes

Toronto construction and bad bike lanes

City Cyclist: Bike Lanes in Toronto

City Cyclist: So THIS is a bike lane

Bike Lanes by Casey Neistat (NYC)

Today, the Internet we love and treasure is facing serious threats. Issues like mass surveillance and walled gardens, along with calls to weaken online security, increasingly endanger the Internet’s openness. Most recently, we saw the FBI ask Apple to circumvent their own devices’ security protections, setting a dangerous precedent that threatens consumers’ security. And in many parts of the world, especially emerging markets, inclusion and equality online aren’t guaranteed.

To address these threats, the Internet needs a new breed of advocate: individuals with both a technologist’s savvy and an activist’s zeal. We need advocates who can stand up for critical issues like privacy, inclusion, and literacy online, and ensure the Internet remains a public resource.

APPLY TODAY TO BE A FORD-MOZILLA OPEN WEB FELLOW

In 2015, Mozilla and the Ford Foundation launched the Open Web Fellows program to foster this type of advocate. We built an international leadership initiative to embed bright and passionate technology talent at leading civil society organizations. It’s a necessary step, and a topic we discussed in the Washington Post when the fellowship debuted.

Says Jenny Toomey, Ford Foundation’s Director of Internet Freedom:

“Technology is transforming every aspect of our world. But there aren’t enough technologists who are prepared to lend their vision to the public sector and make sure we’re building the kind of critical systems that can protect and empower us all. We need to make sure that the rights we have fought so hard to achieve are upheld and strengthened in the digital space. And we need to make sure that the people who are working to challenge inequality have the tools and infrastructure they need to do it well. That means having a diverse, creative cohort of public interest technologists, designers, and engineers working within civil society and governments.”

Now, almost 12 months later, we’re accepting applications for the second cohort of Open Web Fellows. This upcoming cohort of fellows will embed at civil society organizations on four continents.

We’re also celebrating the successes of our 2015 fellows. They’ve accomplished amazing things, which we share below.

To paint a clear picture of the Fellowship program and its impact, we asked our 2015 fellows to explain in their own words. Below, you’ll hear from Andrea Del Rio at Association for Progressive Communications (APC); Tennyson Holloway at Public Knowledge; Paola Villarreal at ACLU Massachusetts; Gem Barrett at Open Technology Institute (OTI); Drew Wilson at Free Press; and Tim Sammut at Amnesty International.

What does an Open Web Fellow look like?

There’s no formula or singular mold: Fellows are data architects and women’s rights activists, developers and designers. They hail from four countries and various points in their careers. But they share a common belief: The world can be made a better place by leveraging the open Internet.

“Open Web Fellows are very talented technical people, but also have a sense of social duty. That’s what sets us apart.” — Andrea Del Rio

“We all share a core understanding that an open Internet is important to modern society, and it needs to be protected.” — Tennyson Holloway

“We all come at the open Web from different angles. We’re passionate about one topic, but come at it from a range of backgrounds with a holistic approach.” — Gem Barrett

What does an Open Web Fellow do?

Fellows dream up and create projects at the intersection of the Internet and civil society. They write code, develop apps, and pen blog posts. They host podcasts, attend conferences, and lead workshops. More broadly, fellows engage with the most important issues facing the Internet today: surveillance, inclusion, equality. Fellows work across organizations, borders, and time zones, networking and collaborating with like-minded technologists and do-gooders.

“We’re pioneers. We’re technologists working for nonprofits doing relevant work.” — Andrea Del Rio

“It’s about data and open source tools and advocacy. It’s about benefiting from the open Web.” — Paola Villarreal

“It’s about making sure the Internet remains open and accessible for everyone. It’s also about expanding freedoms online to more people globally.” — Tim Sammut

“Fellows are interested in social change activities in the long-term.” — Drew Wilson

Why apply?

Open Web Fellows have the opportunity to fight on the front lines of the open Internet movement. They help some of the world’s most established NGOs and civil society organizations navigate the vibrant and increasingly important realm of Internet advocacy. And fellows build valuable relationships with like-minded advocates.

“Having access to all these tools, information, support, people, and resources is a life-changing experience. The work I have been doing during this fellowship has had, and will have, an impact.” — Paola Villarreal

“You’re part of a much larger movement, and that’s definitely rewarding.” — Tennyson Holloway

“If someone is passionate about improving the world, and wants a springboard into doing that as a career, this is for them.” — Gem Barrett

“One of the best things about the fellowship has been the people I met in the Internet freedom community.” — Tim Sammut

What are the host organizations?

Key to the Open Web Fellow program are our host organizations: leading nonprofits around the globe devoted to improving the Internet and the lives of everyone it touches. Host organizations have diverse ambits, from law and human rights to gender equality and press freedom.

Our 2015 host organizations are the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Massachusetts, Amnesty International, Association for Progressive Communications (APC), Free Press, Open Technology Institute (OTI), and Public Knowledge.

Our 2016 host organizations are Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law, The Citizen Lab at Munk School of Global Affairs, ColorOfChange.org, Data & Society, Derechos Digitales, European Digital Rights (EDRi), Freedom of the Press Foundation, and Privacy International.

“The Open Web Fellows Program connects the incredible wealth of tech talent with the justice-minded organizations that so badly need their skills. This is not just about bringing technologists into civil society organizations and government, but about strengthening critical institutions and helping them rise to meet the challenges of the digital age — some of which haven’t even been identified yet.” — Jenny Toomey, Director of Internet Freedom, Ford Foundation

Our 2015 Fellows

Andrea Del Rio,

Association for Progressive Communications (APC)

Andrea Del Rio is embedded at APC, the South Africa-based nonprofit expanding women’s rights and gender equality online with focus on the global south. Andrea’s digital savvy allows APC to advance this mission and present their work in a more dynamic and impactful way. Andrea is crafting an interactive platform for APC’s “Feminist Principles of the Internet,” a treatise bridging the gap between the feminist movement and the Internet rights movement. She is transforming the static document into an interactive community where activists can talk and share resources. When complete, the platform will live at http://feministinternet.net/.

“I try to make a difference on the user interface.”

In November 2015, Andrea led a gender equality session at MozFest, Mozilla’s annual celebration of the open Internet. The session — “A Feminist Internet in 140 Characters” — brought together diverse makers, designers, and technologists who authored a list of open Web feminist principles.

“The feminist principles of the Internet should be relevant to anyone who loves the Internet and is interested in gender equality.”

During her tenure as a fellow, Andrea has traveled to Malaysia, the Philippines, Mexico, the U.S., the UK, and South Africa.

Tennyson Holloway,

Public Knowledge

Tennyson works alongside Public Knowledge, the advocacy organization based in Washington, DC. Its scope: issues at the intersection of public interest and technology. Public Knowledge explores and comments on troubling corporate mergers; advocates for issues like net neutrality; and upholds consumer protections. It’s here that Tennyson functions as a sorely-needed technologist among lawyers and policy experts.

Tennyson is also devoted to a series of self-directed projects. He created the SMS Vote Updater, a tool for subscribing to and monitoring legislators’ voting. Users text their zip code to the service and quickly receive a list of relevant legislators. Users then subscribe to select policymakers — and when policymakers vote on a bill in Congress, users get a notification detailing the vote and bill.

“I was really excited to build this. I like the idea of increasing access. You can keep an eye on your legislator.”

Tennyson is also building whatcanidofortheinternet.org, a collection of resources and stories that detail how individuals can contribute to the Internet. The site motivates others to improve the Internet, and serves as a friendly gateway to the open Internet movement.

Alongside Fellows Andrea Del Rio and Drew Wilson, Tennyson produces the NetPosi podcast. The trio interviews technologists making a mark in the world of activism (or vice versa). Guests include Cory Doctorow and Wendy Seltzer.

“It’s a podcast about the intersection of activism and technology.”

Paola Villarreal,

ACLU Massachusetts

Paola is embedded at ACLU Massachusetts, a staple in the fight for individual rights and liberties. Here, Paola brings a technologist’s savvy (16 years of IT experience) to the world of social justice. She writes code and analyzes gigabits of data to battle inequality.

Paola’s capstone work is Data for Justice, an ambitious initiative that connects activists with data so they can drive change in their communities.

“It empowers activists and advocates to make data-driven decisions.”

Specifically, Paola’s project analyzes data from the Boston Police Department and several other sources, spotlighting discriminatory practices. Findings are then showcased using a data visualization framework, titled Augmented Narrative Toolkit, developed explicitly for this project. And in true open source form, the Data for Justice project can be adapted to other cities around the world.

Paola has also traveled extensively as an Open Web Fellow, plugging into pockets of the open Internet movement around the world. She has attended and spoke at open source and open government gatherings in Mexico City, London, Hamburg, Harvard University, and beyond.

Gem Barrett,

Open Technology Institute (OTI)

Gem works with Open Technology Institute (OTI), an arm of New America focusing on open source innovation. It’s here that Gem writes, programs, designs, and speaks. Specifically, Gem is helping OTI build out their transparency and open data initiatives.

“An open Web fellow gets embedded into an organization and offers their unique skills in order to promote the open Web.”

Gem is also committed to a range of satellite projects. She’s penned articles about making the open source ecosystem more inclusive (here and here), and planned events that explore the intersection of gaming and social justice.

“You have the freedom to explore other opportunities outside of the organization for promoting your passion.”

Drew Wilson,

Free Press

Drew works with Free Press, a nonprofit that advocates for a healthy and free fourth estate. Here, Drew has helped shape Internet2016, an initiative to inject net policy issues into the 2016 election discourse. The approach is decidedly grassroots: Internet 2016 galvanizes Internet advocates to dog politicians on topics like mass surveillance, encryption, and access. Drew lent both his tech and advocacy acumen, building the web page and consulting on campaign content.

Drew has also tackled a number of personal projects. He co-hosts the NetPosi podcast alongside fellows Andrea and Tennyson.

“NetPosi shares stories from people who do interesting work at the intersection of social change and technology.”

Drew curates Tools for Activism, a resource that lists digital tools for activists and technologists. It recently snagged front-page real estate on GitHub. Drew also built a couple of experimental web-tools-for-activism prototypes: a meme generator targeting 2016 presidential candidates (the goal: “empower people to be more politically engaged online”), and Printernet, a web application that assists small NGOs with print mailings.

Tim Sammut,

Amnesty International

Amnesty International stands up for human rights around the globe. As an Open Web Fellow, Tim furthers this mission in a 21st-century fashion. Currently, Tim is helping Amnesty pilot GlobaLeaks, and open source platform for the safer submission of sensitive information.

Tim is also building the Secure Communications Framework, a reference model for human rights researchers and activists seeking the right tools and practices for sensitive work. It’s a matrix for identifying safer, more secure, and reliable channels for carrying out work in dangerous regions. The framework can help people maintain privacy and avoid arrest, detention, or worse.

“[It’s for] a researcher that may be an expert in their field with first-hand knowledge of the challenges that surround them, but is uncertain which digital tools and practices will enable their work without simultaneously undermining their safety.”

Firefox on Mobile has a system to collect telemetry data from user interactions. We created a simple event and session UI telemetry system, built on top of the core telemetry system. The core telemetry system has been mainly focused on performance and stability. The UI telemetry system is really focused on how people are interacting with the application itself.

Event-based data streams are commonly used to do user data analytics. We’re pretty fortunate to have streams of events coming from all of our distribution channels. I wanted to start doing different types of analyses on our data, but first I needed to build a simple system to get the data into a suitable format for hacking.

One of the best one-stop sources for a variety of user analytics is the Periscope Data blog. There are posts on active users, retention and churn, and lots of other cool stuff. The blog provides tons of SQL examples. If I could get the Firefox data into SQL, I’d be in a nice place.

Collecting Data

My first step is performing a little ETL (well, the E & T parts) on the raw data using Spark/Python framework for Mozilla Telemetry. I wanted to create two dataset:

• clients: Dataset of the unique clients (users) tracked in the system. Besides containing the unique clientId, I wanted to store some metadata, like the profile creation date. (script)
• events: Dataset of the event stream, associated to each client. The event data also has information about active A/B experiments. (script)

Building a Database

I installed Postgres on a Mac Mini (powerful stuff, I know) and created my database tables. I was periodically collecting the data via my Spark scripts and I couldn’t guarantee I wouldn’t re-collect data from the previous jobs. I couldn’t just bulk insert the data. I wrote some simple Python scripts to quickly import the data (clients & events), making sure not to create any duplicates.

I decided to start with 30 days of data from our Nightly and Beta channels. Nightly was relatively small (~330K rows of events), but Beta was more significant (~18M rows of events).

Analyzing and Visualizing

Now that I had my data, I could start exploring. There are a lot of analysis/visualization/sharing tools out there. Many are commercial and have lots of features. I stumbled across a few open-source tools:

• Airpal: A web-based query execution tool from Airbnb. Makes it easy to save and share SQL analysis queries. Works with Facebook’s PrestoDB, but doesn’t seem to create any plots.
• Re:dash: A web-based query, visualization and collaboration tool. It has tons of visualization support. You can set it up on your own server, but it was a little more than I wanted to take on over a weekend.
• SQLPad: A web-based query and visualization tool. Simple and easy to setup, so I tried using it.

Even though I wanted to use SQLPad as much as possible, I found myself spending most of my time in pgAdmin. Debugging queries, using EXPLAIN to make queries faster, and setting up indexes. It was easier in pgAdmin. Once I got the basic things figured out, I was able to more efficiently use SQLPad. Below are some screenshots using the Nightly data:

Next Steps

Now that I have Firefox event data in SQL, I can start looking at retention, churn, active users, engagement and funnel analysis. Eventually, we want this process to be automated, data stored in Redshift (like a lot of other Mozilla data) and exposed via easy query/visualization/collaboration tools. We’re working with the Mozilla Telemetry & Data Pipeline teams to make that happen.

A big thanks to Roberto Vitillo and Mark Reid for the help in creating the Spark scripts, and Richard Newman for double-dog daring me to try this.

The annual Ice Cycle races at Dufferin Grove ran this past Saturday. For a definitive report, go to the Dandyhorse Blog, which has some of my text, along with much better pictures from Vic Gedris. What I’m posting here are my photos, and some additional notes from the event.

This year’s event was dedicated to the memory of Dave Miller and Tommy “Toast” Quesnel, two members of the bike community who passed away this past week. Derek Chadbourne of the Bike Joint sponsored the event, and all monies raised went to the families of the deceased.

Action from preliminary heats:

Two crowd favourites: the Ice Stud and the Ice Emperor

Raymond strikes a pose.

Nick is loading his new high tech 8 mm camera with digital viewfinder.  Always looking forward to seeing the footage that he gets.

Rick helped things run smoothly.

Now, time for a little chaos: the Chariot Race.

By this time, the ice was pretty carved up, so it was time for a Zamboni break.

Afterwards, nice and smooth.

Start of the men’s final.

Justin, the defending champ, leads off the field.

For a while, it was a battle royale between Justin and Jordan, but about halfway through, Justin started to fade. The men’s final was won by Jordan K, who was extremely elated to win after many years of trying.

Then, the women’s final. It was a tight three way race for about five laps before the eventual winner started opening a gap on the field. In the picture below, she is still biding her time in third place.

Our new Queen of the ice is Molly Mc.

Interestingly enough, both the winners rode the same bike with a nice titanium frame.

The tires on the bike didn’t have studs on the center of the tread, and the studs were dense but low profile.  Hope I’m not giving away any secrets…

All hail our new ice King and Queen!

and some video:

Thanks again to Derek and the Bike Joint for putting this great event on. A good time was had by all.

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MWC wants to become CES but misses the importance of software.

• From the fairground VR ride at Samsung to the Submarine at SK Telecom and the endless devices that have nothing to do with telephony, it is clear that MWC is becoming more like CES.
• Samsung launched the Galaxy s7 / s7 EDGE but most of the excitement was around the Gear VR, championed by Facebook, and the Gear 360 which captures VR pictures and video.
• Sony launched a series of products that aim to free the user’s eyes from the smartphone screen and define a new way of using Digital Life services.
• LG launched its flagship G5 device that both looks good but also enabled a series of bolt-on modules that enhance media consumption (with Bang and Olufsen) and the imaging experience of the device.
• HTC’s stand was split into two but while the phone area was very quiet, there was plenty of interest on its VR product the Vive.
• Huawei launched the most interesting tablet with its Mate Book being the thinnest, lightest, fully functional tablet PC I have seen.
• Huawei also takes the prize for spending the most money with a huge stand in Hall 3 and a customer area that takes up a third of Hall 1 that was also very busy.
• At the end of the day, the show this year is all about devices that do not connect to the cellular network.
• This is symptomatic of an industry that has realised that growth in smartphones has ground to a halt.
• This combined with the fact that Apple and Google have siphoned off almost all of the profit, leaves device makers having to look for other markets to chase.
• Consumer electronics is firmly targeted, but with everyone jumping on the same bandwagon at the same time could result in very aggressive price competition.
• This is why differentiation is so important and as always, this is going to be achieved through software.
• Software is the glue that will ensure that devices from the same company work optimally together and it is also what is needed to add the extra functionality needed to drive consumer purchase decisions.
• Unfortunately, no one is talking about software where it seems that the hope is that the plethora of new devices is so dazzling that no one notices.
• Furthermore, all of the companies grabbing the headlines are from Asia and software is something that Asian hardware vendors really struggle with.
• This is critical because it is the vendor that really gets to grips with software that will offer the best experience, get the best reviews and drive consumer device preference even if it doesn’t have the best hardware.
• Furthermore the added functionality that many (Sony in particular) are talking about requires a deep understanding of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
• Again this is not an area that any of these companies excel at opening the possibility of an M&A frenzy once they have realised what is really required to make this work.
• The net result is that growth is going to be very hard to come by this year as VR, AR, Wearables and IoT are still too small and too early stage to really plug the gap.
• I think when these issues are solved, then other devices can begin to take up the slack of the slowing smartphone market as it is those great experiences that will encourage users to splash out.
• Hence, what I am looking for at MWC is the seamless genius that allows the digital ecosystem to be delivered to users no matter which device they choose to use and of this, there is very little sign.
• Until then, there is very likely to be little change in the non-Apple segment of the device market where it will be Google that reaps almost all the profits.
• Microsoft, Samsung and Facebook remain my long term choices although Apple looks like a safe bet with little growth but a very low valuation to match.

For 4 years the best messages the music industry could dream up to deter illegal downloading was “it’s illegal!” and “artists should get paid for their work!”

Neither was effective on young tech rebels who knew the former and didn’t care about the latter. When Steve Jobs launched iTunes in 2003, he tried a different approach:

“If you go to Kazaa and you try to find a song, you don’t find a single song. You find 50 versions of that song, and you have to pick which one to try to download, and usually it’s not a very good connection. You have to try another one, and by the time you finally get a clean version of the song you want, it takes about 15 minutes. If you do the math, that means that you’re spending an hour to download four songs that you could buy for under $4 from Apple, which means you’re working for under minimum wage.”

Here the coding of the message changed from ‘you’re breaking the laws of grown-ups’ (which the audience ignored) to one of self-respect (‘you’re working for less than minimum wage!’).

It turns out the kids care quite a lot about working for less than minimum wage. Who wants to be taken advantage of like that?

You can’t construct messages to change group behavior without truly understanding the values of the group. Values lead to beliefs, beliefs lead to justification for actions.

If you can’t encode a message in the right values, you can’t affect the beliefs and won’t change the actions. And actions are the ultimate goal of our work.

• Read more about API Management: A Survival Imperative

“The client’s ask is simple,” he said, “but I’m not convicted that’s a good criteria; anyhow, there are important learnings for us.” How much of that do you hate? Whatever; living languages don’t care what you think.

The awful truth

English, among languages, is a shiftless tramp, equally at home in the alleys behind mansions and hovels. It’s always ready to pilfer a scrumptious linguistic pie left to cool on a metaphorical windowsill, or fetid food-waste from the metaphorical gutter.

These growths on English’s not-so-fair face are harvested from the hallways and meeting rooms of North American high-tech, which is after all renowned for its creativity.

Which is to say, let’s consider neologisms on their merits. Not that that’ll do any good, often the lamest stick while the jewels crumble.

“ask” n.

I actually kinda like this one. Yes, you could say it before, along the lines of “the specific item that was requested” or “the core demand” or some such. No, it’s not a synonym of “request”. It’s only got three letters. It’s a nouned verb, which is rarer than a verbed noun. Good on it.

“criteria” n. sing.

This one hurts my brain, but Latin’s admonitions about pluralization are coming, after all, from the language graveyard; when did you last say “datum”? I hear it more and more. I defiantly say “criterion” given the slightest chance but find my passive-aggressive usage policing rarely even noticed. Also, there are these kids on my lawn.

“learning” n.

I never heard this before I went to work for Google and now I hear it everywhere, so let’s all see if we can drive Alphabet’s share price down until they promise to make it stop. Oh wait, I’m still a shareholder.

There will be those who point out that by replacing a descendent of Latin lectionem with an ordinary verb participle we actually add regularity to English, which in general could really use it. There’s a lesson in there somewhere.

“convicted” adj.

Ewwww. Blecch. I mean, seriously. The leap from “conviction“ to the past participle of an inferred verb is sort of wryly daring, I suppose. But were there a court somewhere with jurisdiction over really stinky neologisms, this one would be found guilty.

It was hotter in 2015 than any other year ever. K. K. Rebecca Lai for the New York Times shows just how much hotter it was in your city. Simply type in your city name or click on the arrows to browse to see a time series for the year.

The background bars in lighter gray show all-time highs and lows, the darker gray bars show normal range, and the red bars show the lows and and highs for 2015. So when you look at a time series for a single city, you're essentially looking at three maximum and minimum value pairs for each slice of time.

Precipitation levels are shown on the bottom, and to top it off, there's a spinny globe in the top right to orient you geographically. It packs a lot of information into one space, but it works. And speedy.

Tags: environment, New York Times, temperature

An early look at the modular LG G5

Samsung’s sleek new Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge

Related reading: Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 edge Hands-on, LG G5 Hands-on: modular is the new Playground

It’s been a busy couple of days for Alcatel OneTouch, which just announced the Idol 4 smartphone line and Plus 10 tablet, along with a brand refresh which will see the company called just Alcatel now. The company is showing off the next generation of its phones at Mobile World Congress, and it’s just getting started.

Alcatel announced it’s also launching a refreshed Pop lineup of devices, and they come in a variety of styles and colours. There are a total of three phones, the Pop 4, Pop 4+ and the Pop 4S. Together, the phones come with covers in all kinds of vibrant colours, in brushed metal, and even leather and wood. The Pop 4 has a 5-inch 720p screen, while the Pop 4+ has a 5.5-inch display at 720p, and the Pop 4S comes in at 5.5 inches and 1080p.

The Pop line is designed to appeal to the unique tastes of consumers looking for a unique look to fit any sensibility. The Pop 4 and 4+ come with 8 MP rear cameras, while the 4S sports a 13 MP rear sensor, while all three phones have 5 MP front cameras.

The Pop 4 and 4+ carry quad-core CPUs, while the Pop 4S is rocking an octa-core processor, a fingerprint sensor, and Hi-Fi sound with JBL headphones. In addition, all three devices come with large batteries that include a quick-charge to 50 percent power in just 30 minutes.

We still don’t have Canadian pricing information or availability details just yet, but that should be known shortly.